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The program’s three pillars – Engaging Medical Providers, Inspiring Families, and Increasing Access to Healthy Food – each play an important role in disseminating education and resources to support rural communities at high risk of nutrition security.

At the core of the PhytoRx Families is the community-centered approach and integration of program components that address whole-person health at the individual, community, and societal-levels. We partner with Federally Qualified Health Centers to train rural medical providers, who are typically the first point of contact for health and nutrition advice. After nutrition training, rural medical providers will refer their adult patients with school-aged children at risk of nutrition insecurity to our program. We also partner with local eastern North Carolina growers to provide lower-resourced families with fresh, locally-sourced produce, enhancing local food production and economic security for local farmers. We then utilize regional food hubs or food banks to deliver fresh produce to rural families and provide culinary-focused nutrition education to help families prepare meals at home with nutrition top of mind.

Finally, our robust research approach will help quantify the diet, health, nutrition security, and healthcare economic impacts of PhytoRx Families and help bolster support for healthcare payers to cover produce prescription programs as reimbursable health services.